Darjeeling

by Bharti Kirchner

Novelist and award-winning cookbook author Bharti Kirchner has written a sweeping family saga, a first class fiction about forbidden love and family honor.

Set in the mountainous tea plantations of Darjeeling, India and in New York City, Darjeeling is the story of two sisters - Aloka and Sujata - long separated by their love for Pranab, an idealistic young revolutionary. Pranab loves Sujata, the awkward, prickly, younger sister but, out of obligation, marries Aloka, the gracious, beautiful, older sister. When all of their secrets are revealed, the three are forced to leave Darjeeling. Aloka and Pranab flee to New York City and Sujata to Canada. The story opens ten years later, when their Grandmother summons everyone home to the family tea plantation to celebrate her birthday. Despite the fact that Aloka is still very much in love with Pranab, they are in the process of getting a divorce. Sujata, who is still single, runs a successful business importing tea, a business that doesn't fill her broken heart. This trip forces the sisters to wrestle with their bitterness and anger and to try to heal old wounds. What complicates matters is that Pranab, too, is going to India and is intent on rekindling his relationship with Sujata now that his marriage is over.

Although filled with the rich foods, smells, and social confines of another culture, Darjeeling is really about the universally human emotions of jealousy, rivalry, love, and honor. It is a complex novel about family, exile, sisterly relations, and how one incident can haunt us for the rest of our lives.

Genres: Fiction, India, Indian Literature, Contemporary, Womens, American, Asian American

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Bharti Kirchner is the author of eleven books—seven critically acclaimed novels and four cookbooks and hundreds of short pieces for magazines and newspapers. A recent novel, Goddess of Fire, was shortlisted for the Nancy Pearl Award.

Her earlier novels include Tulip Season, Pastries: A Novel of Desserts and Discoveries, Darjeeling, Sharmila’s Book, and Shiva Dancing.

Bharti has written for Food & Wine, Vegetarian Times, Writer’s Digest, The Writer, Fitness Plus, Northwest Travel, and The Seattle Times. Her essays have appeared in eleven anthologies.

Bharti has won a VCCA (Virginia Center for Creative Arts) Fellowship, a City Artist’s Project award, two Seattle Arts Commission literature grants, two Artist Trust literature grants, two 4Culture grants and has twice been a Fellow of Jack Straw Productions. She has been honored as a Living Pioneer Asian American Author. She is a popular speaker at writer’s conferences nationwide.

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book actually changed my daily habits, because I understood from it what to pay attention to in buying tea. I also slowed down and paid attention to how the tea I drank tasted, learned more about tea than I had realized there was to know, and sought out GOOD tea sources in my neighborhood. Not many books on my list have changed how I live from day to day!

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story of Aloka and Sujata. Sometimes when you think you want something, it’s not really what you want after all.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a pleasant surprise that the story becomes less about a simple love triangle and more about the relationship between two sisters finding themselves and each other.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first novel I read for my Contemporary World Lit class. It wasn't a terrible book--it was just really boring. I'm not usually one to say outright that a book is boring because that is usually the hallmark of not understanding a piece of literature, but I don't mean that it was long-winded, complicated, and insightful--the plot was just ho-hum and dull. What occurred in 300 pages could've occurred in about 100.

Two sisters--Aloka and Sujata--live with their father Bir and grandmother Nina on a tea plantation in Darjeeling, India. Aloka is engaged to Pranab, a charismatic field worker who wants to secretly revolt against Bir's business, but he and Sujata end up having an affair. To avoid scandal, Nina sends Sujata to live in Canada and sends Aloka and Pranab to live in New York City. Aloka and Pranab eventually divorce, Sujata opens her own tea company, and on their grandmother's birthday, she invites the sisters back home after ten years. The beginning was strong, but by the end, I just hated the men so much and I wanted the sisters to throw them off and unite in how ridiculous their lives ended up being. Pranab was especially insufferable...it was hard to see what the sisters saw in him!

The one amazing part was the tea--so many wonderful, lush descriptions of the different flavors and smells of tea. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Read Darjeeling at the same time as Kate Quinn's Serpent and the Pearl and you'll be hungry and thirsty in five minutes. Kirchner writes cookbooks as well, so it all makes sense.

Also, the last line in the novel bothered me. I'll let you guys decide after reading, but it was one of the prime examples of not ending a novel on your best sentence. This wasn't a great book, but it isn't a waste of time, either--some will like it, some won't.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sisters Aloka and Sujarta Gupta grew up comfortably in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalaya. As the daughters of a family who own a tea plantation, they have a privileged but not a wealthy life. Growing and working tea is a hard living, subject to competition from cheaper teas from other countries and of course from coffee. Elder sister Aloka is the beautiful and artistically accomplished sister, destined to one day inherit the tea plantation whilst Sujarta is younger, rather plain but has a passion for tea that her elder sister lacks. When Aloka becomes engaged to the plantation manager, Pranab, the family expect the two of them to continue the business at the tea plantation but things do not go to plan. Pranab gets involved with Sujarta, meeting her regularly, telling her his dreams and sharing his plot to fight for workers rights at the plantation.

When the girls’ father finds out that Pranab has been seeing both his daughters, he hires thugs to drive Pranab out of town, to kill him if necessary to protect the family honour. The girls’ grandmother, Nina, sends Sujarta away to relatives, exiling her from temptation, from Pranab and from the shame she’s bringing on the family. Despite knowing that Pranab is in love with her sister, Aloka still agrees to marry him, the two of them fleeing Darjeeling because grandma can pay off the thugs but can’t be sure her son himself wouldn’t kill Pranab if he saw him again. Thus the plantation goes from having two of the next generation living in Darjeeling, to losing both the girls to North America.

Pranab and Aloka set up home in New York, whilst Sujarta makes her home on the west coast of Canada, opening a speciality tea shop. Aloka works as a writer, moonlighting as ‘Ask Seva’, the anonymous agony aunt of a newspaper for expat Indians living in New York. We meet both the women again about a decade after they left Darjeeling. Pranab wants a divorce and has moved out and the girls’ grandmother Nina has invited him and Aloka and Sujarta to return to Darjeeling for her birthday party. Nina knows she can’t live forever and wants to try to mend the rifts of the past, to bring her two girls back together again and to settle issues around their inheritance. In theory Nina doesn’t know about Pranab and Aloka’s break-up but she’s a wise old bird and has worked out already that things are not as they should be. Can the beauty of the mountains give Aloka a way to win back her husband or will he take advantage of the setting to pursue Sujarta again? Is there any prospect for the two women to find a way to forgive each other?

I love books set in India and I particularly love Darjeeling with its amazing views, its tea bushes coating the hillsides like green corduroy and its controversial political situation. If you want a place to set a story that’s a character in its own right, then Darjeeling certainly qualifies and I was fairly sure that no book set there could completely fail to deliver. Certainly the city performs beautifully within the pages of this book.

I found the book started quite slowly and I didn’t instantly ‘like’ either of the sisters. Aloka was so perfect, so sweet and – once she found out about Pranab and her sister – so crazily accepting of his deception that I found her a bit of a doormat. Sujarta was equally unlikeable, primarily for fooling around with her sister’s fiancé. And Pranab himself seemed to be pitched as a rebellious, emotional man but struck me as far too self-serving and deceptive. Nina, the grandmother, was the star of the early chapters, supporting her son by paying off the thugs and supporting her granddaughters by finding them ways out of the mess they’d made.

Once the two women made it half way around the world to North America, their lives were really rather absurdly successful. It does seem to be a conspiracy of writers of books about the immigrant dream that everyone always gets to do remarkably well and nobody ends up washing dishes in a diner and living 20 to a room. Sujarta’s tea business, her mission to teach restaurateurs about the delights of tea and to live as a successful single woman were a bit of a leap from the rather ‘weedy’ girl who’d left Darjeeling but made her more likable than her younger self. Aloka of course was still beautiful and successful too – only Pranab was right royally failing to achieve his potential. What’s a man with tea and mountains in his blood to do when faced with life in the concrete jungle? He’s given a passion for dance which seems to be intended to humanise him a little more but I just felt he needed a good slap – but that I’d probably have to form an orderly queue in order to deliver it.
The period when the girls return to Darjeeling is my favourite part of the book. Distance and time give them an appreciation for the place that they probably didn’t have whilst younger. The author avoids the temptation to throw the two women together too quickly, giving Sujarta time there with her grandmother, offering her a potential suitor and giving her time to reflect on her life. Pranab is as weasel-like as ever, assuming that with Aloka cast off, he can now move on to Sujarta. Aloka has half a mind to try to win her man back but the buds of a new relationship back home are sprouting and she now has alternatives. When reconciliation eventually comes – as inevitably it must – it’s a bit contrived and involves a lot of symbolically burnt milk, but it’s actually believable that the magic of Darjeeling and the love of a good grandmother can rebuild bridges.

I appreciated that the author kept us guessing about the two women’s relationships and their decisions to the very end and doubly appreciated that she didn’t give into the temptation to roll everything up in a massive, syrupy ‘happy ever after’. I didn’t find either woman entirely believable but the star of the book was Darjeeling itself and when Kirchner wrote about the city and the tea plantations every word was entirely believable. Whilst I’m never a great fan of family sagas, plots of entwined romantic spaghetti, or slightly cartoon-like characters, I have to remind myself that my objective in buying ‘Darjeeling’ was to remind myself about the city and its surroundings. In that respect the book delivered exactly what I was seeking and I’m more than glad that I read it. However, if you just want a great novel set in India, I can recommend many better than this one.

[Kaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this journey to India and this glimpse into Indian culture as well as the culture of Indian immigrants to North America. Set mostly in the foothills of the Himalayas, it wove together two stories of following your heart... questioning the wisdom of it while following the imperative of it, even when it takes you places you didn't expect to go. As a woman who has never chosen to marry, I often feel disenfranchised at the end of books because their message to me is that my life isn't a happy ending. This book didn't do that to me. I appreciated that. Every path has its price and it didn't shirk that either.

[Cindi Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful story about 2 sisters and the lives they lead once someone they both "love" separates them.

[Micebyliz]

sorry. this novel did not float my boat. i usually love novels of India so i was disappointed.

[karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to rate this book five stars before I even finished it. Reading Darjeeling felt like coming home again. I loved the pace of the novel-- even though the chapters were short, the plot unfolded slowly. Both Aloka and Sujata are inspirational women, and I've walked away with many lessons about marriage, family, and the importance of taking initiative. Looking forward to reading more of Kirchner's work.

[Anita Friesen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful descriptions. Great juxtapositions abound. I was often thrown off/distracted by the inconsistencies. e.g. two women sit down to have a chat over coffee. One asks the other how she likes her coffee. Two more sentences of dialogue, and apparently they are finished their coffee. This needed a better editor to catch so many of these errors. Not a bad book otherwise.

[Nelda Brangwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two sisters, now living in North America, are still bitter about their relationships with the same man. It’s not until they return to India for their grandmother’s birthday. Although, the storyline was predictable, the story was worth reading.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love how the tension between the sisters was resolved - finding each other, finding themselves, finding home, finding a purpose. A beautifully written journey masterfully paired with the spirit of tea.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was slow and basic. I did not enjoy it as much as ones written by other Indian authors about life in India. I wouldn't really recommend it.

[Eshal Manha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seqeuel please?

[Akhila · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than a triangle love story, It's more about sisterhood !. Liked how raw the emotions were written.

[Smitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book that I picked up, just by the blurb at the back.

The tale of two sisters. Two sisters who do not get along, who have their own set of insecurities which cloud their relationship. Aloka and Sujata have grown up in Darjeeling, with their father and loving Grandmother Nina. Aloka is the older, confident, accomplished sister who is the centre of attention everywhere. She has numerous suitors buzzing around her, while Sujata, the prickly, younger sister is ignored in the general scheme of things. Aloka falls in love with the tea taster and revolutionary Pranab, and the two get engaged. In the meanwhile, Pranab meets Sujata and they fall in love with each other. Pranab ends up marrying Aloka(let me not divulge too many details). They emigrate to New York, and have finally get divorced. Pranab is keen to re-kindle his romance with Sujata, who has been living in Victoria, Canada.

Grandmother Nina, invites all of them to come and celebrate her birthday with her in Darjeeling to try and get them to reconcile. I can’t write any more without giving away the whole story. It is an interesting story, but in a lot of places, I felt it was quite cliched. In some places, I found it difficult to understand what motivated the protagonists to behave the way they did.. I mean, some of the choices seem quite inane – at least to me. Pranab’s character especially felt quite lame.

What I did like about the book was the descriptions, and the way she brings out the feel of the places. It transports you to tea plantations of Darjeeling, New York or Victoria. She did make me drool with the food that she describes. I actually feel like making Channer Payesh, just to have a taste of it.

I would give it a 2.5/5. An easy read -but not exactly something I would buy – I would much rather pick it up from the library.

[Margaret Rowley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up because of its focus on a set of sisters, and because of its international setting. In this book, two sisters navigate family obligations and not-so-different love lives as beings separated by taste, and then by distance. The topic was interesting, and so was much of the information contained in the book about growing tea.

I wanted to love this book, but ultimately I was a little disappointed. The storyline moved enough to keep me going, but I had trouble with a few specific things while I was making my way through the book, one of which was the dialogue. Description is maxed out, to the point where the dialogue really couldn't be more unnaturally descriptive unless we were gleaning the entire backstory from it. The voice in which people seem to converse transcends nationalities- everybody speaks with a formality that I found difficult to relate to as a reader, even close friends or family members. Secondly, we learned a lot of backstory as we went along, almost enough that much of it seemed like an afterthought.

Finally, there were little blips along the entire story that went unaddressed, like in the final chapter, when an "elderly uncle" whispers "Can you imagine a woman running a tea estate? Do they have the stamina or the temperament? In my opinion they do better as mothers. What a mistake." These are some heady words, but they do little to illuminate our main characters, as Aloka is distracted before she can respond at all, and then the book ends.

Overall, this book had a fascinating topic; I just wish it were more carefully executed.

[Keksisbaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bei dem Wort Darjeeling sieht man vor seinem geistigen Auge sofort Berghänge bedeckt mit grünen Teepflanzen und dazwischen die farbenfroh gekleideten Pflückerin, die mit Hingabe jede einzelne Knospe ernten. Die Familie Gupta hat eine lange Tradition in der Herstellung von Tee und anläßlich ihres 81 jährigen Geburtstags schart die Matriarchin ihre Familie um sich. Besonders am Herzen liegt ihr die Aussöhnung der beiden Schwestern Aloka und Sujata. Beide legen im Exil in USA beziehungsweise Kanada, nachdem sie sich vor acht Jahren in denselben Mann verliebt haben. Aloka hat diesen Mann geheiratet, aber ihre Ehe ist daran gescheitert das ihr Mann noch immer ihre Schwester liebt. Zurück in Indien müssen sie sich ihrer Vergangenheit und den getroffenen Entscheidungen stellen. Alte Narben brechen erneut auf und neue Wunden werden geschlagen. Aber Blut ist nunmal dicker als Wasser.
Dieses Buch entführt nicht nur auf Darjeelings Teeplantagen und zeichnet ein Bild vom einfachen Leben in Indien. Es zeigt auch die Welt der sich indische Auswanderer stellen müssen. Es ist ein schmaler Grad zwischen der tiefenVerankerung in die Tradition ihres Landes und sich dennoch dem westlichen Lebensstil anzupassen. Einigen gelingt diese Gradwanderung leichter als anderen.
Es ist einfach eine tolle Familiengeschichte, die den Charme von Bollywood in sich trägt, jedoch völig frei ist von Kitsch. Einfach ein Buch so gut und entspannend wie eine Tasse heißer Tee.

[Winona Howe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought Darjeeling (by Bharti Kirchner) before I knew that I would be going there, but I didn’t read it until after I returned. By then, of course, I had some familiarity with the area, but my reading of the book enriched my experience—even though the reading was in hindsight. The story is about two sisters who have never appreciated each other, never been close. We learn to know these young women, the strengths and faults of each and why they react to situations the way they do. They are alike in one way, though—they both love the same man, a situation that not surprisingly leads to unhappiness for everyone involved. Many books are written that explore and explain family dynamics, but Darjeeling also looks at the immigrant experience that demands a different kind of change and growth than would be required at home. It also highlights the divided feelings of connection and loyalty, of allegiance and duty, as well as the pain of adjustment that will inevitably occur. What is owed to the old life and what to the new? Kirchner handles these themes deftly in richly descriptive passages. Darjeeling was a most enjoyable read.

[Signe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had been stuck on the first 50 pages of this book for the longest time. Finally, after coming down with a cold last week, I was subdued enough to see it through. Nice descriptions of the Himalayas and an okay premise for a story. The tea worker/revolutionary that the two sisters were fighting over didn't seem worth their trouble - I wish he had been depicted as more passionate about his cause. I also wish the author had spent more time describing the tea growing and harvesting process since that was the family's empire was all about. One of the characters was a knitter, so the book had that going for it...

[LuAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of two sisters in India torn apart by their love for the same man. One sister ends up living in Canada selling tea - her family owns a tea plantation in Darjeeling, India. The two come together after many years apart and make amends not only with one another but with the man that caused them both so much pain. I really enjoyed the description of this small town in India - it sounds so beautiful and peaceful.

[Kimberly]

At first, a bit difficult to fall into the story but past chapter 3--it drew me within the pages. A story of women independence, sacrifice, & the convergence of traditional to modern times. Change is inevitable both in our home communities and in ourselves. With change, we strive to develop our keen senses of enjoying the journey, & the life we lead--optimism at it's utmost!

[Wendyrap · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a great read. It paints a breathtaking picture of the beauty of the tea plantations in the Himalayas and describes Bengali culture and traditions. I'd give it a four and a half if I knew how to give a half a star. It also touches on what it is like to be an immigrant in New York city and the bond between sisters.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a poetic and heart-breaking story of two sisters, heirs to a Darjeeling tea plantation, who fall in love with the same man. This story takes us on a journey of their lives as they both experience love, heart-break, and finally redemption. It is a story of the ties that bind and what loyalty to family really means.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story involving two sisters and a love triangle. Opened my eyes to Indian culture and the thoughts and emotions of immigrants as they adjust to life outside their comfort zone. Was not a page turner, but was a good book.

[Shauwea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was very beautifully written. It made me yearn for tea and daydream about trips to Darjeeling. But the plot was a bit too basic and the ending too drawn out. Still, it was an easy and pleasant read.

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

How disappointing. I had high hopes for this book after hearing the author speak at a writer's conference. But it had too much of a flavor of a romance novel for me. Interesting tidbits about living in India and tea plantations, but I guess I wanted and expected more than that.

[Shaheena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad South Asian book about family drama.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great insights on the culture of immigrating Indians.

[Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in India, in the tea growing region, it is a classic Indian novel and I love it.